President Joe Biden tonight confirmed the death of al-Qaeda leader Ayman
al-Zawahiri yesterday in a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan.





<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>



Al-Qaeda Leader & Co-Founder Ayman al-Zawahiri Killed In U.S. Drone Strike



(New York, N.Y.) — President Joe Biden tonight confirmed the death of al-Qaeda
leader Ayman al-Zawahiri yesterday in a U.S.drone strike
<[link removed]>
in Kabul, Afghanistan.



To read the Counter Extremism Project’s (CEP) Ayman al-Zawahiri resource,
please clickhere <[link removed]>
.



Zawahiri co-founded al-Qaeda with Osama bin Laden in 1988. He had led the
group since bin Laden’s death in 2011 and expanded the number of al-Qaeda
affiliates around the world. The FBI’s Rewards for Justice program offered a
$25 million reward for information leading to Zawahiri’s capture.



Under Zawahiri’s stewardship, al-Qaeda became increasingly decentralized, with
authority resting primarily in the hands of al-Qaeda’s affiliate leaders.
Zawahiri brokered mergers with a number of Islamist groups including al-Qaeda
in the Islamic Maghreb (previously the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
or GSPC) and al-Shabaab. Zawahiri also sanctioned the creation of a number of
al-Qaeda affiliates, including al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and
al-Qaeda’s former Syria affiliate, the al-Nusra Front. In September 2014,
Zawahiri announced the creation of al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).



Before assuming the leadership of al-Qaeda, Zawahiri led the Egyptian Islamic
Jihad (EIJ). Zawahiri merged the EIJ into al-Qaeda in June 2001. On August 6,
1988, the EIJ sent a fax to an Egyptian newspaper, stating that the terrorist
group would seek revenge against the United States for arresting several of the
group’s members. The following day, al-Qaeda bombed the U.S. embassies in Kenya
and Tanzania, killing 224 people. The U.S. government indicted Zawahiri for his
role in the attacks. In 1999, an Egyptian court sentenced Zawahiri in absentia
to death for his role in an alleged terrorist plot against U.S. interests in
Albania.



To read CEP’s Ayman al-Zawahiri resource, please click here
<[link removed]>.



To read CEP’s Al-Qaeda resource, please click here
<[link removed]>.



###





Unsubscribe
<[link removed]>